Log Cabin Assembly Part 3

To connect the front walls and side wall assemblies, I had to get faster with the glue. No dilly dally!

I started out by fitting everything together. It was not perfect. There are a few gaps here and there, but I wasn't ready to crack things apart so I could try to get them perfect.  Perfection was not happening.

I used a small paint brush to paint the wood glue onto the areas that would touch and be glued.

I squished everything back together. The floor is in place but not glued at this point. I wanted it there to keep the walls square.

Then I clamped here and there, and finally used twine to snug up things together.

My son thought the twine was an awesome addition to the fort. He said it was an electric fence. He also said it was a good idea to keep out the bad guys, like the bad ninjas.

I love his imagination!

Log Fort Assembly Part 2

After many little things have come and gone, we are back to making (slow) progress on the log cabin.

I swear, even using good wood glue and clamps, these wall will just crack apart if you look at them the wrong way. The kids really want to help, so I let them hand me things so they don't get messy from the glue.

I had to repair the walls a few times before we could actually interlock them to glue them together. Then during the interlocking and gluing step, I had one of the smaller front walls come apart. I'm sure this will happen again and again before I'm done with the whole house.

Justin came up with a clever way to square up the walls and hold them together snugly while waiting for the corners to dry. He used twine to wrap the side walls a certain way. I can't really describe how he did it, but it worked. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see the twine still on one side wall assembly.

 Coming next, interlocking the front with the sides! Then after that, installing the floors and gluing them into place.

Little Red Cottage

I started a little cottage about a year before I started Annika's house. Let's say sometime in 2004, I opened the box and started assembly. No, I didn't take pictures because this happened back in my personal Digital Photo Dark Ages. We had a crummy digital camera and rarely used it.

I was just going through an old notebook of presentations I co-wrote for one of my old jobs and found a to-do list for this house, with notes for Annika's House and the log cabin (which is now Eric's fort) that I still have not finished. The list dates to 2005.

I started with the Lafayette dollhouse by Dura-Craft. At first, I was not positive what I wanted it to look like, but I knew I wanted to go with a patriotic theme of red, white, and blue. My inspiration came from a few pieces of furniture I bought. They were from Robin Betterley's Liberty Bay living room furniture line.

At this point, I don't remember the exact details of assembly. I glued individual square shingles over the entire exterior walls. I added cedar shingles to the roof. I didn't add apex gingerbread trim. It needed to be more simple, more rustic. I went through a number of paint samples until I found the right combination of dusty blue, barn red, and cream.

I custom mixed the gray paint on the base and glued on tiny aquarium rocks.

I wanted to stay consistent with the interior color scheme. I picked up scrapbook papers with muted stripes, stars, and things that would flow together.

I had some thin brown faux-suede fabric leftover from an American Girl doll outfit that became the bedroom carpet.

Now, this little house is still unfinished. I have to complete the tile flooring upstairs, wood flooring downstairs, the baseboard trim, the 1st floor chair-rail trim, the windows, and the door. It has been sitting around in more or less the same state for 2 or 3 years. I have a sheet of pine random plank flooring waiting for me to place downstairs.

Once I get some free time (warm weather = garden time) and other dollhouses finished, I will resume work on this one.